Of stormy nights and older brothers
by Nao tan
Summary: Norway is always there to comfort Iceland during storms, always, even if Iceland can't remember a single time when he asked. And Sweden and Denmark can need a little bonding time sometimes
1. A lovable, yet very annoying big brother

**1254, Reykjavik, Iceland.**

The storm was raging outside. Iceland let out a tired groan and turned to his other side, getting his legs all tangled in the heavy blanked. He sat down sleepily to pull it off of his leg. He hated when his blanket was tangled; the feeling of being unable to move as he wanted was even worse than sleeping on a hard rock.

He heard rustling on the other side of the small room followed by the now familiar voice of his older brother.

"Iceland?" he called quietly. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Why?"

"Are you alright?"

He blinked. He was too sleepy to understand whatever that meant.

"Yeah."

"The storm doesn't bother you?"

"It's a bit loud," he agreed, then he heard Norway get off of his bed.

"You want me to come with you?"

Iceland squinted, but he couldn't come up with a single reason to either accept or refuse. He didn't say anything and Norway took it as a yes. Iceland held back a sigh as Norway lifted the blanket before letting it fall back on the both of them. Iceland laid back down and stirred away a little to give Norway more space. Norway put an arm under his back and his knees around Iceland legs, as if he was a pillow. Iceland elbowed him but Norway refused to move.

"It's okay," Norway said. "It'll be gone soon enough."

Iceland held back another sigh. It looked like he wouldn't be getting as good of a night as he had hoped.

As soon as Norway was asleep though, he slowly slid off of his grip and took the older's bed.

**1584, Copenhagen, Denmark.**

Iceland opened a blurry eye to find Norway's face over his own.

"What are you doing?" Iceland grumbled.

Norway pushed him to make space for himself in the uselessly big bed that Denmark had decided to gift Iceland with the first time the younger had came to visit Denmark's new home.

"There's thunder outside. I thought you were going to be scared again so I decided to come to you instead of forcing you to cross the hallway in the dark and with the noise of the thunder - that definitely shouldn't scare you, by the way. Aren't I a great brother."

"Are you coming back from outside?" Iceland asked, feeling Norway's cold arms around his shoulders.

"No, why?"

"You're shaking."

Norway laughed softly.

"The floor was cold. Go back to sleep. The storm will be gone when you wake up."

Norway always said the same thing. Sometime, it wasn't even true, but Iceland was far too tired to protest. He fell back asleep in his brother's arms, something that was starting to happen far too often for his liking.

**2020, Rovaniemi, Finland.**

Iceland scrolled through his new messages, his phone the only thing lighting his room in Finland's second favorite house. He had spent the entire day without his phone, since Finland had declared that they had to spend a distraction-free family bonding time in Santa's village. The distraction-free part was somewhat hypocritical, considering that Finland had immediately forgotten their plan to go sled as soon as he had noticed the queue to get Santa's picture. In the end, it was a relief for Iceland's legs to find his bed and for his ears to finally get some silence, only broken by a soothing sound of rain falling and the occasional thunderclap.

In hindsight, he should have seen it coming and hidden somewhere before it was too late, but the thunder rumbled and the door of his room slammed open.

Norway stood there in the Christmas-themed pajamas that Finland had just bought him, holding his pink stuffed rabbit by the arm. He smiled awkwardly - the same smile Iceland had seen countless times in a similar situation before.

"Hey," Norway started.

Iceland scooted over before letting him ask.

"Why don't you ever go see Denmark?"

"He's not scared of thunder. And what are you doing on your phone? You should be sleeping."

"So should you."

Iceland had given up on making Norway understand that he wasn't scared of thunder; actually, it was quite the opposite, he found the sound relaxing.

Norway stepped closer, holding his rabbit just a little too tightly.

"Say, I wa…"

Norway didn't get to finish his sentence. Thunder rumbled again, much closer, much louder. With a shriek, Norway jumped in the bed. It took Iceland a second to understand what had happened before he burst out laughing, laughing so hard his phone fell of his hands and he felt a sharp pain in his abs.

"Pfft, I can't believe it," he snickered, wiping away an amused tear. "You really aren't doing it for me, are you?"

Iceland had never seen Norway look so embarrassed. He grabbed his phone to sneak a picture, but Norway threw himself on his arms to pin them down.

"Don't you dare," he hissed.

"You've been forcing me to sleep with you since the thirteenth century, I'm allowed to take a picture of you."

"Please don't tell the others," Norway begged. "I have a reputation, you know?"

Iceland took the time to consider the question. He knew he had to choose very carefully how and when he said it. He needed to have several cameras ready to get all of their faces from every possible angle - especially Norway's - and he needed the timing to be _perfect_ so he could have the best reaction out of all of them.

In the end, he settled for keeping the information for later…

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I won't."

…but in the meantime, it would be a great blackmail material.


	2. Why Denmark can't sleep at night

**2020, Denmark's room, Rovaniemi, Finland**

Denmark was almost sleeping, _almost_. The familiar noise of Norway leaving his room to go to Iceland's woke him up. He yawned, wondering when Iceland would finally realise why Norway really bothered him like that. He snickered quietly, remembering the times before they found Iceland, when Norway's pride stopped him from ever asking for comfort and he would curl up somewhere - often under a tree, what an idiot - in the hope that it would somehow protect him.

As soon as Iceland's door closed, Sweden's opened. Denmark frowned and sat up. That was unusual, especially since Sweden came knocking on _his_ door. So unusual actually that Denmark decided to get up to greet him.

"What's up, bro?" he said as he opened the door.

Sweden was wearing his blanket, holding it tightly around his shoulders. He looked a little pale, too.

"Erm, you okay?"

"No," Sweden said immediately.

Denmark blinked.

"Excuse me?"

Sweden squinted a little.

"Can I stay with you?"

Denmark's eyebrows shot up.

"_Excuse me_?"

Sweden's hands shook a little over the blanket.

"Finland is a pain to sleep with," Sweden muttered apologetically.

"Yeah," Denmark said. "He snores, I _know_."

He pointed to the left wall, the one he shared with Finland.

"Why would you sleep with him anyway? I know you're gay but…"

"_Shh_," Sweden hissed, slamming a hand on Denmark's mouth.

"What? Everyone here knows you're gay. You know, it's okay to be ga…"

The thunder rumbled and Sweden flinched.

"Oh."

On the other side of the wall, he heard Iceland laugh. It was nice to see the kid lighten up a little, he had looked terribly moody the whole day.

"I'd have gone with Iceland but I'm pretty sure Norway is already taking too much space," Sweden mumbled.

Denmark put a hand to his mouth, successfully holding a laugh back.

"It's fine, bro, you can sleep with me. No homo, though."

"No homo," Sweden agreed.


End file.
